Mets linked to Santana again

With the Yankees out, are the Mets back in the Johan Santana Sweepstakes? That’s what SI.com reported, but I wouldn’t get carried away. Afterall, the Mets’ prospects haven’t gotten any better in the last three days.

The thought is the Twins are priming to the pump to see if they can get anything more from Boston, which seems to have hit its limit.

This raises the thought that with the Yankees gone, why don’t the Red Sox also back off, knowing their competition is out? Then again, are the Yankees really out of it? Weren’t they also out of it for Alex Rodriguez?

Actually, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Twins haven’t gotten too greedy and don’t make any deal. The longer this drags out, the more I’m thinking he stays.

John Delcos enters his third season covering the Mets for The Journal News after eight seasons on the Yankees beat. Prior to coming to New York, John covered the Baltimore Orioles, Cleveland Browns and Cleveland Indians.

The Mets can’t afford Santana if it comes with the price of Pelfrey, Gomez, and a prime time everyday player.

If you want to make a deal offer Beltran straight up for Santana or Haren. Gomez and Chavez won’t put up the offensive numbers of Beltran, but we’ll get pitching without selling the farm. And by the way Beltran is averaging about .270 for the last few years. Yes he hits homers, but it comes in waves. One week he looks like all world and the next three weeks he is non existent. There are a bunch of outfielders in the majors with much better numbers!

David Wells wants to talk to the Mets, and Livan Hernandez as well. These guys could pick up some of the slack left with the loss of Glavine.

JD, you keep saying The Mets can’t afford Santana’s salary and the cost of stripping the farm dry. But you also say the farm is not that good. So what are you stripping away?

And as far as money, I don’t pretend to know as much as a Met beat writer, but it is hard to believe they don’t have the money. If you said they don’t want to spend the money that is different.

Plus, w/the Yanks and Sox supposedly out of it, who does that leave?

LAD? their GM said he does not want to part w/his young guys. And can they pay him? B/c who is going to trade for him and not sign him?

LAA? do they have any money left after signing Hunter? Do they want to pay Santana so much more than Guerro that he gets ticked off?

Mariners? They certainly can’t have the money.

That leaves one team that can afford (money wise) to pay Santana—-The Mets.

And how can the Twins keep him? Again, Santana supposedly said he wants to be traded this winter or forget it-he will not accept a trade in season. And who is gonna trade for him in season as a rental for 3 mos or think they can sign him at that time?

Lastly, Santana again supposedly said he only wants to go the Yanks, Mets or Sox b/c he is going to live in Fla in the off season and does not want to fly coast-to-coast.

I know this is a long shot, but if the Sox are out of it, I don’t think it is impossible.

That link above showing a three way deal is a bunch of crap. There is no way the mets are trading reyes and the twins want top line starters (lester, hughes etc.), who they can have cheap for a while. The only reason the twins are talking to the mets is to see if they can get more out of Boston. I do disagree with JD’s reference saying the Mets can’t afford$$$ santana, that’s crap. Another thing JD said I also disagree on, there is no way the twins are not going to trade santana, my bet he is still going to the Red sox.

I said outfielders with better numbers. There were 36 OF’s last year with higher averages. Don’t get me wrong, I like Beltran. He is very good defensively and has always had good power numbers. However, if you want to go get a top quality starter, he is the type of player that can get you a premiere pitcher.

JD when u look at the package that Boston has on the table of lester and crisp, the mets can make a better offer than that of Perez/Gomez/Mulvey/F-Mart so i think we are really in it. I think any1 in baseball takes our package over that of the redsox Perez is a better lefty than Lester and Gomez is cheaper and has a bigger upside than that of Coco.

John,
You just don’t know what to make of the Santana auction, do you? You keep asking are the Yanks in or out. And why are the Redsox doing this or that.
With the Yanks, Hank Steinbrenner says Out. More importantly, Cashman doesn’t want to trade Hughes and Pettitte agreed to come back, making Hank S more comfortable. The A-Rod situation was different. A-Rod asked back in and a deal was negotiated. The Yanks made up for the lost Texas money.
You are right the Mets don’t have much to offer.
The Redsox, obviously, think Santana is worth their offer.
Overall, you are just spinning your wheels. That’s what happens when you write off someone else’s reporting.

Bobby Bones. The Twinkies have zero interest in Beltran and he also has a no trade clause. They are trading Santana and lost Hunter, traded Castillo, may trade Nathan all because of $ and your offer is a $18.5 mil a year CF? Dito for the A’s. These teams are looking for cheap, young, controllable talent, aka not Beltran. Also, if you lose your fixation with batting average, you may better appreciate Beltran’s offensive numbers. Most feel OPS is a better measure of a hitter and Beltran’s numbers are quite favorable when measured against league OF. In three years with the Mets he has two silver slugger awards, two gold gloves, and three all-star appearances. He hasn’t been a savior, but I also don’t believe he’s part of the problem, never mind tradeable.

hey john.. no one really mentioned this.. but how much longer you think the marlins can have a 10 million dollar before the other owners- really just hank- demand to stop sharing revenues for other teams profits. for once, id agree with him- its ridiculous how they run the team and make gobs of money will letting their fans down… i think this will happen soon- there are to many big owners who arent going to appreciate giving money from their pockets to that of another owner… wanted to know your opinion of it.. if anything was said at the winter meetings..

Yeah, the Marlins are kind of robbing people. They operate the club on luxury tax penalties and revenue sharing and don’t spend a dime otherwise. It’s quite a racket they have going. What makes it most upsetting, however, is that they’ve won two titles in the last ten years.